Saturday, March 22, 2008

This cute little Teen Crop-Top is knit in 100% cotton and is perfect for hot summer days. The I-Cord makes the 'spaghetti' straps as well as the bow in front. Keep an eye on our Etsy Shop as I will have several colors available in June. I do have the pattern available for machine knitting (comes with a schematic that many experienced hand knitters have used in the past) and that can be purchased through our website.

Friday, March 7, 2008

There are soooo many things I seem to collect, besides my yarns and my (gulp) 17 knitting machines (SSHHHHH! Don't tell the hubby). One collection that was passed down to me is my china teacup collection. My Mom collected them (I think she inherited some from her Mom's collection) and when she passed away in 1999, I found myself facing almost 200 tea cups, NOT counting the ones with the various china sets, nor duplicates! My initial thought was ... "Oh, boy, we've got to get rid of some of these, they're taking up too much space." Well, that was easier said than done. I'm the only child and have only 1 daughter. My sons weren't enthralled with the prospect of receiving tea cups, one was unmarried at the time and the other was a widower. They'd had to, as they put it, 'endure' Gran's tea parties every so often. Jessica (daughter) took several of them for herself and for her two daughters.

When we went back to California to hold a special memorial service for Mom at her previous church, the ladies put on a 'real' English Tea in honor of Mom. I cried. A lot. I'd also packed up probably 15 or 20 of various tea cups in single boxes and after the service, we went around and delivered them to several of her oldest and dearest friends.I've added numerous ones throughout the years and am starting working on small teapots. Individual size. I still have close to 125 cups. It's really special to me to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea with my Mom's cups. Great memories!!

repeat from * until you reach RC 42 ( you'll have the two plain rows of knitting)Scrap off with ravel and waste yarn leaving a tail three times the width of your piece.

Graft stitch the two ends together, weave in any yarn ends. If you have problems with the top and bottom curling in (these are the SIDES as you are knitting on the machine), you can undo the 2nd stitch in on each side as you are knitting the piece and latch them up. I just steam them well before doing the graft stitch and don't seem to have any problems at all. *IF* my yarn seems to want to stretch a lot, then I do weave in thread elastic around the top and bottom of the finished item, pulling the elastic THROUGH stitches.